Self-proclaimed interim president Jeanine Anez moved to establish a new cabinet in Bolivia, and suggested that the goal would be to have a new election as soon as possible. Ousted, exiled President Evo Morales has suggested he’s open to coming back, if the voters want.
It’s not likely that Anez is up for that idea, and the Bolivian military and police certainly aren’t, as they moved to forcibly prevent pro-Morales MPs from entering the legislature on Wednesday,
The legality of the move is in serious doubt, as Bolivian law allows senators to enter the Senate to meet whenever they want. Anez failed to secure a quorum to elect her as interim president, and unilaterally declared it. The Bolivian military has since announced a leadership shake-up and swears loyalty to her.
For now this leaves Morales in Mexico, and his MPs unable to enter the Senate. The Trump Administration seems entirely comfortable with this turn of events, endorsing the military takeover earlier this week and praising Anez for “stepping up” and declaring herself the new ruler.
It’s not clear who between Anez and the military are really calling the shots, but the US seems comfortable with either, seeing anything that is post-Morales as necessarily a step toward democracy, no matter how much of a military coup it gives the appearance of.
When you do a coup, you cannot do it half way. Now the “democratic” credentials are out for all to see!
And Bolivian indigenous population will be soon stripped of their ID cards and prevented from voting. Morales supporters are representing majority population. How on earth did Williams Kaliman got appointed last year to the post of military chief, being one of the more prominent supporters of those who identify themselves with descendants of European colonists?
Everywhere in Latin America US works to put in power once ruling elites of European descent, while natives have been marginalized. In Colombia we actually pushed them into hinterland. We tried to fo it in Venezuela, but natives there have been better equipped to deal with the problem. We did it in Equador, but our man tried to rob population a bit too fast, and when natives descended on capital he fled to the city where his European base lives. Natives made a mistake to let him off the hook. We have bern doing it throughout Central America and Caribbean. and we inserted that poison into Mexico, with violence not easily explained by drugs.
It was very smart of Mexico to give asylum to Morales.
The fight between marginalized indigenous people and privileged elite of descendants of European colonists has just begun.
Our liberal, woke crowd is hard asleep on this one.
Our conservative crowd is too easily fooled by name calling — call someone socialist or communist, and beyond that no questions asked.
And nobody is asking about the gargantuan amounts of money that we are spending in stirring up protests and violence around the globe? For what purpose? From Hong Kong to Lebanon, from Iraq to Venezuela and Bolivia. Many attempts in Nicaragua.
It is rather pagan. If you cannot control them, wreck them.
There are no “indigenous people” in Bolivia. Everyone who’s there is descended from someone who wasn’t from there.
There is surely a difference between a community whose culture is linked to the land where their ancestors have been living for all of recorded history and longer, and who are systematically marginalized and deprived of resources and life opportunities in that land, compared with a community who identify as descendants of settlers and colonists from another part of the world, and who hold economic and political control of that land owing to the violent invasion of said colonists and settlers.
CoB,,you mean what Israel has done to the Palestinian???
Hi Thomas:
I would love for you to back that contention up… (that is tantamount to saying that Native American Peoples are not indigenous here in the US.)
Regardless of “Indigenous” or other, the current state of affairs in Latin America has a historical record: US interventionism in just about every country in Latin America has a very long and well documented history and cannot be disputed. (You need to put your personal politics aside and do some homework. You can start with William Blum’s book: Killing Hope, The history of CIA Interventions. (https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope)
I am trying to understand your position on this…
Do you object to the idea that there is a “leftist-socialist” component to some of these movements? Do you understand why this would be a natural evolution after years of US/Western interference for Capitalist gain (i.e. other countries resources)?
This is an antiwar website and regardless of political leanings, most of of us come here because we object to WAR, in all of its
forms.
I find you to be something of a conundrum.
Antiwar is antiwar and understanding the complexities of how interventionisms create a geo-political back lash (the cause and effect of failed US Foreign Policy) in the world requires educating yourself on the history of the various regions.
Blankets statements do not get to the heart of the matter.
Best to you.
“that is tantamount to saying that Native American Peoples are not indigenous here in the US”
No, it isn’t tantamount to saying that, it IS saying that (if by “Native American Peoples” you mean the descendants of Asian migrants who arrived here before European migrants).
My “position” isn’t complicated:
I can be against US intervention in Latin America and elsewhere without believing that Morales and Maduro are saints, that anyone whose ancestors arrived in the region hundreds of years ago but not as long ago as someone else’s ancestors is “European” as opposed to “indigenous,” etc.
This is a warning to the USA Citizen,,,do not allow the military to become involved in any policy decision,,as they are doing now,,this is why the founders hated a large standing army and wanted militias and an armed population!!!!